Author(s): Jim Main

Ball Sports

The Encyclopedia of AFL Coaches is the natural follow-up to the enormously popular The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. This new addition to the history of football's personnel details the careers of the men who have been senior club coaches over more than a century of VFL/AFL competition. This encyclopedia not only has statistical information on the games won, lost and drawn by individual coaches, but goes into detail about fascinating coaching careers, from Collingwood legend Jock McHale to the virtual unknowns who coached for just one or two games. For example, St Kilda's Bill 'Banjo' Paterson coached the Saints for just one game in 1938 when regular coach Ansell Clarke was unavailable. Paterson was handed the job just before the start of play and his normal role with the Saints? He was head trainer! This book details the appointments, the sackings, the unusual, the bizarre. As with The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers, no true football fan can afford to be without this book.